2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Reed Sea just as the LORD told me to do, bypassing around Mount Seir for a long time.¹ 2:2 At this point² the LORD 2:3 said to me, “You have circled around this mountain long enough—now turn north. 2:4 Instruct³ these people as follows: ‘You are about to cross the border of your brothers the Esauites⁴ who inhabit Seir; they will be afraid of you so watch yourselves carefully. 2:5 Do not be hostile against them because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint,⁵ for I have given Mount Seir as an inheritance for Esau. 2:6 You may purchase⁶ food from them to eat and water to drink. 2:7 All along the way I⁷ have blessed your every effort.⁸ I have⁹ been attentive to¹⁰ your travels through this great wasteland. All these forty years I have¹¹ been with you; you have gone without nothing.’” 2:8 So we turned away from our brothers the Esauites, the inhabitants of Seir, from the desert route, from Elath¹² and Ezion Geber,¹³ and turned instead and traveled the way of the Moab wastelands. 2:9 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not harass Moab and provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as your territory. The reason is, I have given Ar¹⁴ to the descendants of Lot¹⁵ as a their possession. 2:10 The Emites¹⁶ used to live there, a people as powerful, populous, and tall as the Anakites. 2:11 These people, as well as the Anakites, are also considered Rephaites¹⁷—the Moabites call them Emites. 2:12 Previously the Horites¹⁸ lived in Seir but the Esauites dispossessed and utterly annihilated them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land I¹⁹gave them. 2:13 Now, get up and cross the Wadi Zered.”²⁰

So we did so.²¹ 2:14 Now the length of time²² it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was 38 years, time for all the military men of that generation to be finished off just as the LORD had sworn to them. 2:15 Indeed, it was the very hand of the LORD that devoured them from the middle of the camp until they were totally decimated.

2:16 So it was that after all the military men had been put to death from among the rest of the people 2:17 The LORD said to me, 2:18 “Today you are going to cross the border of Moab, that is, of Ar,²³ 2:19 But when you come close to the Ammonites do not bother or provoke them because I am not giving any of the land of the Ammonites as your possession; I have already given it to Lot’s descendants²⁴ as their possession. 2:20 (That also is considered to be a land of the Rephaites.²⁵ The Rephaites lived there originally;²⁶ the Ammonites call them Zamzummites.²⁷ 2:21 They are a people as powerful, populous, and tall as Anakites. But the LORD destroyed the Rephaites²⁸ in advance of the Ammonites²⁹ so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place. 2:22 This is just what he did for the Esauite inhabitants of Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them so that they could dispossess³⁰ them and settle in their area to this very day. 2:23 Also, as for the Avvites³¹ who lived in settlements as far west as Gaza, Caphtorites³² who came from Caphtor demolished them and lived there instead.³³) 2:24 Get up, make your way across Wadi Arnon. Look! I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon,³⁴

and his land. Go ahead! Take it! Engage him in war! 2:25 This very day I will begin to fill with dread and to terrify all the people of the earth³⁵ when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your coming.”³⁶

2:26 Then I sent messengers from the Kedemoth³⁷ Desert to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, 2:27 “Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the roadway.³⁸ I will not turn aside to the right or the left. 2:28 Sell me food for cash³⁹ so that I can eat and give me water to drink. Just allow me to go through on foot 2:29 just as the Esauites of Seir and the Moabites of Ar did for me until I cross the Jordan to the land the LORD our God is giving us.” 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass over by him because the LORD our God had given him a resistant spirit⁴⁰ and stubborn determination⁴¹ so that he might deliver him over to you this very day. 2:31 Surely enough, the LORD said to me, “Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession.” 2:32 When Sihon and all his troops⁴² emerged to encounter us in battle at Jahaz,⁴³ 2:33 the LORD our God delivered him over to us and we struck down him, his son, and everyone else.⁴⁴ 2:34 We then seized all his cities at that time and put under the divine curse⁴⁵ every one of them that was inhabited,⁴⁶ even the women and children; there was not a single survivor. 2:35 Only the livestock and plunder from the cities did we keep⁴⁷ for ourselves. 2:36 From Aroer,⁴⁸ which is at the edge of Wadi Arnon, and the city in the wadi,⁴⁹ all the way to Gilead there was not a city too inaccessible to us—the LORD our God gave them all to us. 2:37 However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok⁵⁰ valley, the cities of the hill-country, or any place else forbidden by the LORD our God.